Oyster Bay-East Norwich

Photography students at Oyster Bay High School recently had a rare and memorable learning experience, participating in a two-part masterclass led by educators from Adorama, the iconic New York City-based photography retailer. Through a partnership with Pentax, Adorama loaned students the coveted Pentax 17 camera –  a half-frame film camera that generated significant buzz in the photography world as one of the first modern film cameras Pentax has produced in years.

The masterclass unfolded over two sessions. In the first, Adorama educator Daniel Norton introduced students to the fundamentals of shooting on film: how to load their cameras, understand basic operation, and navigate the Pentax 17's thoughtful design, which blends beginner-friendly automatic settings with some manual exposure controls for those ready to experiment. Each student was tasked with shooting a full roll of Ilford HP5 black-and-white film, which thanks to the half-frame format of the Pentax, meant capturing 72 images per roll.

The second session transformed the school itself into a working darkroom. Students spent the day learning to extract and develop their own film, using blackout bags and an art room sink to mix chemicals and rinse their negatives before hanging them to dry on a line strung across the auditorium stage. Norton and an additional educator from Adorama, Seth Miranda, guided students through each step of the process, then reviewed the developed negatives with them – pointing out where light leaks had occurred or where development had gone awry – turning every imperfection into a teaching moment. The negatives have since been sleeved and will be scanned so students can select and print their best work.

For many in the class, it was their first time holding a roll of film. The experience offered more than a history lesson –  it illuminated the foundational logic that connects analog and digital photography. Exposing light-sensitive film to create a latent image, then developing it in chemicals, is not so different from exposing a digital sensor to light and refining the result in post-processing software. The parallel gave students a new way to understand tools they use every day.

Perhaps most powerfully, shooting on film asked students to slow down. Accustomed to the instant feedback of digital cameras, they had to shoot thoughtfully, trust the process, and wait – a challenge, but also something of a revelation. The magic of seeing an image emerge from a strip of developed film is something no screen preview can replicate.

A heartfelt thank-you to Adorama, Pentax, Ms. Giglio Pac and Mr. Boris for making this extraordinary experience possible.